Gawker's Got It

Blogs, blogs, blogs. The only thing more fun than blogs is saying the word: blogs. And nobody makes blogging more fun than Gawker, which is also a great word.



This Manhattan-based blog has something for like, everyone. Their conversational style might alienate some older, more conservative demographics but that's OK. Gawker still offers a lot of stuff to a lot of people.

For example, just today they posted a Guide to a Journalism Career.
See? They had even us in mind:

Above: A Typical Journalist

Because their layout is so simple, I was able to find that interesting post right away. Their big, bold headlines on each post, as well as each red subhead describing the category the story falls under (i.e. pop culture), makes for an easily navigated blog.

Also, they include a photo, image, or video with every single post. This gives people an even better and quicker idea of what each post is about so that the online news consumer can immediately determine which ones are of interest to him.

The best part, though, is the comment feature. The editors choose the best comment for each post and display it next to its short version on the home page. The commentary is usually just as funny and provocative as the posts themselves.

Speaking of the posts, who ever heard of such variety? Not only are the topics extremely wide-ranging (different aspects of politics, the economy and an increasingly mandatory dose of celebrity guilty pleasures ) but they're also astonishingly innovative.

Take this article for instance. Everybody's heard about the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's use of the popular lipstick-on-a-pig euphemism. Instead of blogging more about how the Republicans are angry and why, and the Democrats aren't and why, and blablabla, Gawker decided to investigate the historical implications of calling someone a pig.

Another example of how they twist new juice out of stories is their post about Sarah Palin's self-worshipping doodles on the back of a political document. Their focus is never quite ordinary:

To top it all off, there's a most popular stories section - an absolute must in the Blogosphere - and Gawker Stalker Sightings, which describes running into famous people in Manhattan.

Basically, Gawker's got it because it understands the importance of:

• Multi-media
• Content Variety
• Twisting New Juice
• Gawking

That's all for today, folks.